Christmas for all?

While the authorities worry about having too much to spend, experts have suggested that the money should be used to support the social welfare system.

The huge amount of fiscal revenue gives people the illusion that China is a rich county, but the wealth of a county is not always a guarantee that living standards can be upheld for everyone, said Wei Sen, deputy director of the school of economics at Fudan University in Shanghai.

The Chinese government is expected to receive more than 10 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue this year, but its spending on health insurance for the 1.3 billion population was just 200 billion yuan, equivalent to that of Greece, a county with only 10 million people, Wei said.

China Daily